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Alexander Hamilton and the Declaration of Independence
In June of 1776, the Continental Congress resolved to issue a statement asserting the colonies'
right to freedom and independence. The Declaration of Independence appeared the following month,
proclaiming a set of fundamental principles familiar to all Americans: "We hold these truths to
be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Along with its announcement of the right of the colonists to resist oppression came an eloquent
list of political disaffection, offering ample reason to end the reign of George III over the
colonies. But the Declaration did not provide a blueprint for the monarch's replacement; it
expressed a conviction that there should and could be something better, and made an implicit
promise to bring such a government to fruition.
It took another twelve years and a false start for the United States of America "to institute
new Government." Despite not having a hand in crafting the Declaration, Alexander Hamilton
labored as much as any of the founders to extend its words beyond the page. His service in the
Continental Army, advocacy for the Constitution, and influential work as the first treasury
secretary helped give substance and structure to the Declaration's ideals.
On July 4th, 1776, Hamilton commanded an artillery post in New York, poised to defend Jefferson's
words against the British rage they incited. Eight days later, two battleships sailed into the
Hudson River, showering lower Manhattan with cannonballs. Hamilton returned fire until some
careless artillerymen blew up one of their own cannons and as many as six Continental soldiers
with it.1 Hamilton served until the end of the war seven years later. He was appointed George
Washington's aide-de-camp in 1777 and acquired a reputation for great bravery and superlative
skill as a writer. Handling information going to and from Washington gave Hamilton detailed
knowledge of the course of the Revolution. He witnessed the Continental Congress's difficulties
in managing the war effort and attributed them to political factionalism and a tendency to defer
to the states. This fueled his belief that the states needed a strong central government, a
belief he would use to shape the Constitution and establish the Federalists as one of the nation's
first political parties.
Always in search of ways to win the Revolution and to make independence
a reality, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton urged the recruitment of black soldiers. Deviating from
Thomas Jefferson's beliefs, Hamilton wrote that blacks' "natural facilities are as good as ours."2
Hamilton's reading of the Declaration's claim "that all men are created equal" was clear, and
he promoted that interpretation even more forcefully after the war.
The Declaration's eloquence imbues its message with a sense of moral clarity, but the
contradiction between its famous claim of equality and its author's acceptance of slavery
underscores the difficulty of defining and implementing that ideal. In 1785, Hamilton joined
with twenty-nine others to found the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves.
The Manumission Society's statement of principles echoed the Declaration, but went further,
arguing that it was the duty of free citizens to ensure the abolition of slavery and "enable
[slaves] to Share, equally with us, in that civil and religious liberty to which these, our
Brethren, are by Nature, as much entitled as ourselves."3 Although slavery did not end
immediately, the Manumission Society did help nudge it toward extinction in New York. Largely
unpopular abolitionist views did not prevent protection of slavery under the Constitution either.
But with the advocacy of men like Hamilton, who embraced the words of the Declaration with the
literal fervor we admire today, the Constitution made at least some inroads into limiting slavery
by instituting the Three-Fifths compromise and scheduling the end of slave importation by 1808.
From the time of the Revolution, Hamilton believed the nation needed a strong central government
to secure the rights claimed in the Declaration. And he offered this in his answer to the
Declaration's call to create a better government in his writings throughout the 1780s. The
Federalist Papers, one of the finest entries into the debate over the form American government
should take and the principles of freedom it should protect, appeared in 1787 in an effort to
rally support for the ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the
eighty-five letters, and in it he railed against ineffective governance produced by too much
power held by the states under the Articles of Confederation. He pressed for a more powerful
national government that could provide economic and military strength, and wrote a detailed
defense of the proposed Constitution. Hamilton's spirited advocacy of law enforcement and judicial
review offered pointed alternatives to the legal obstructions and judicial manipulations committed
by George III, which the Declaration cited in its call for independence. Lawyers, historians,
and the Supreme Court have all looked back to The Federalist Papers to understand the structure
and meaning of United States Constitution and to assess how the rights laid out in the Declaration
ought to be protected.
Hamilton's discussion of taxation and finance in The Federalist Papers provided insight into
how he believed liberty could be secured. He saw finance as a means to victory in the Revolution,
and by extension, a way to give the ideas in the Declaration a reality: "'Tis by introducing
order into our finances-by restoring public credit-not by gaining battles that we are finally
to gain our object."4 After becoming the first treasury secretary in 1789, Hamilton initiated
the repair of the young nation's credit by devising a plan to meet the country's debt obligations.
The plan was adopted and the capital moved from New York to the Potomac in the process.
Interestingly, the colonists had accused George III of calling together legislative bodies in
inconvenient places in order to fatigue its representatives. In contrast, by supporting the
capital relocation, Hamilton sat at the center of the sort of compromise that helped build a
sound economy, providing one of the "new Guards for their future security" to which the
Declaration could only allude.
As treasury secretary, Hamilton advocated a market driven economy. He abhorred inherited wealth,
having had to find his own way largely without it. He wanted to put fiscal machinery in place
that thwarted land accumulation as the primary path of advancement. Republicans like Jefferson
bitterly opposed the ways Hamilton sought to secure liberty, championing yeomen farming as a path
to democracy instead. The merits of those competing outlooks is debatable, but in light of the
economic deprivations intertwined with the political tyranny bemoaned in the Declaration, it is
hard to not see Hamilton's economic vision as at least a viable alternative to the inequities of
George III's brand of mercantilism.
The Declaration of Independence was a start. It called for recognition of fundamental rights
that demanded protection. The Revolution secured American Independence and the Constitution
codified a means to maintain American liberty. Although Alexander Hamilton may not have signed
the Declaration, he certainly left his imprimatur on the new government it promised.
Robert Lee
Manuscript Cataloger
1Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), p. 78.
2James Horton, "Alexander Hamilton: Slavery and Race in a Revolutionary Generation," New-York Journal of American History, Spring 2004, p. 21.
3Richard Brookhiser, "Why Hamilton? Why Now?" New-York Journal of American History, Spring 2004, p. 11.
4Richard Sylla, "Hamilton and the Federalist Financial Revolution, 1789-1795," New-York Journal of American History, Spring 2004, p. 34.
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Click to see Declaration of Independence.
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GLC 00079, Declaration of Independence. Broadside:
Printed by John Gill, Powars and Willis, Boston, circa July
18, 1776. 1 sheet.
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